Before the Australian courts, CCDM argued that India had waived its sovereign immunity by ratifying the Convention on the Recognition and Enforcement of Foreign Arbitral Awards, 1958 (New York Convention).
The central issue before the High Court was whether such ratification amounted to submission to jurisdiction. Answering this in the negative, the Court held that the Convention does not evince a “clear and unmistakable” intention to waive foreign State immunity.
“The New York Convention displays neither a clear nor an unequivocal intention that entry into the Convention involves such a waiver.”
It further clarified that the structure and context of the Convention do not support an inference of waiver merely from ratification.
“The indications from the text and context of the New York Convention suggest that State ratification was not intended to constitute, in and of itself, a waiver of foreign State immunity.”
